The days of paperback novels are becoming a thing of the past with more and more readers turning to electronic books. One middle school in Mesa County is using these e-books to help students become more confident readers.

These Nooks were introduced to students who may struggle with reading. One teacher who uses the Nooks told me some of these kids used to get down on themselves and were embarrassed to read in front of peers. Now, the Nooks have changed all of that and she says her students want to read.

The librarian at Mount Garfield Middle School says the school saw a lot of potential value in the e-books, so she applied for a grant that would allow the school to purchase Nooks and download books.

The school staff says the e-books made a huge difference for those students who have difficulty reading at the same level as their peers. With the Nooks, no one can see what the students are reading, how fast they're reading, what level they're reading and how many pages are in the book. These factors all made students more confident. Students who use the Nooks say there are many different perks to using them.

"It's better reading on a nook because it has less words and I don't lose my place easily," middle school student Cody Hermanson said.

"You can make the words bigger if you want to or you can look up words you don't know, actually," middle school student Austin Miracle said.

"You can actually zoom in on the words, and you can read better and [more] fluent, and I can actually read my level," middle school student Steven Velerde said.

Mount Garfield Middle School recently ordered five more Nooks. They are hoping to introduce them to eighth grade boys who aren't huge reading fans in the next couple of weeks. Their goal is to get them excited about reading again.

Those Nooks were introduced at the beginning of the school year. Mount Garfield's librarian says she will continue to look out for other grants, and hopes to add more Nooks in the near future. She also says they have seen more students bringing their personal e-readers from home. Mesa County libraries currently allow students to check out electronic books from their systems at their school libraries.